WINNEMUCCA - It may have been just the first week of January, but when he Lowry High School varsity girls basketball team took to its home floor on Saturday afternoon, playoff implications in the Division I-A North were at stake.
Churchill County, who played in the championship game of the Lowry Invitational in the first week of the season, made a return trip to Winnemucca and found itself in a fight against the Lady Bucks.
Lowry (4-8 overall, 2-2 Division I-A North) held a 19-16 advantage over Churchill County at halftime, only to have the Greenwave use a strong third quarter to pull ahead and hold on for the 45-38 victory.
"I felt we did a good job against a pretty good team," said LHS head coach Jack Smith. "We started off a little slow but made a good rally. We hurt ourselves in the third quarter with some unforced errors. The Churchill County coaches said their girls underestimated us. They thought it was going to be an easy game. We played them in a scrimmage at the start of the year and they took it to us pretty good. It was a whole different game today."
Churchill County looked poised to run away with the victory at the start, scoring seven of the first nine points. The only bucket for Lowry in that time was by Taylor Schwartz.
However, the Lady Bucks rebounded from the slow start and scored the next 10 points, including the final seven of the first quarter. Carli Evatz started and ended the spurt with two 3-point field goals, giving the Lady Bucks a 12-7 lead.
Churchill County battled back to tie the game at 14-14, but the Greenwave bench was whistled for a technical foul shortly afterwards. Schwartz hit the two free throws and Alyssa Jones followed with a 3-point shot to put Lowry up by five points at 19-14.
"We were doing a good job of running our offense and hitting our shot," Smith said. "We just had to settle down. We were playing in our gym for the first time this year and we were a little amped up."
The Lady Bucks kept the momentum going at the start of the second half as a jump shot by Alyssa Dendary put Lowry up by two points, 21-19. From there, Churchill County dominated the third quarter, taking advantage of Lowry turnovers and missed shots. The Greenwave went on a 12-2 run to take control at 31-23. A jump shot by Shelby McKinnon cut the deficit to five points, ending a nearly five-minute long scoreless streak for Lowry.
The Lady Bucks stayed in the game in the fourth quarter as McKinnon made 2-of-3 free throws as she was fouled on a 3-point shot and Evatz connected on a 3-point shot to close the score to within 38-33 with 2:31 to play.
Churchill County made just one field goal in the fourth quarter, but made eight free throws as Lowry was forced to foul late in the game. Evatz nailed a 3-point field goal with 32 seconds to play to make the score 41-38, but Churchill County made four free throws to seal the victory.
"You have to give credit to Churchill County, they make their free throws," Smith said. "We were trying to figure out who to foul on Churchill County. Every one of their girls was making free throws."
On the strength of four 3-point field goals, Evatz paced Lowry with 14 points. McKinnon added eight points, Schwartz seven, Jones five and Kylee McClellan and Dendary two each.
"I am encouraged with the way we played," added the coach. "We have shown that we can play with a number of teams. Our league is going to be competitive this year."
Lowry looked rusty in its first game back after a 14-day break on Friday night in Fernley in its 32-29 win. The Vaqueros jumped out to a 10-9 advantage in the first quarter, when the Lady Bucks' defense stepped up from there.
The Lady Bucks used a 12-3 run in the second period to grab a 21-13 lead, but had to hold off the Vaqueros in the second half.
"We played well defensively and forced Fernley into a number of turnovers but couldn't do anything with it on offense. We were sluggish on offense and couldn't get anything going."
Fernley had its chances at the end to tie the game, only to see a number of shots bounce off the rim. It was a measure of revenge for Lowry, after Fernley handed the Lady Bucks their first loss of the season a year ago after Lowry started the season 10-0.
Dendary and Schwartz each scored nine points to lead Lowry. Evatz added six, McClellan four, Jones three and Rachel Sigurdson one.
Lowry finishes up Division I-A crossover play this weekend. The Lady Bucks host Dayton Friday at 6 p.m., while making the long trip to South Tahoe on Saturday for a 3 p.m. tipoff.
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